There are two ways of looking at the value Dwain Chambers will undoubtedly add
to British sprinting, and in particular to the country’s chances of a relay
medal, now that he has been cleared to compete at this summer’s Olympics.

On the one hand, it is an indictment of the rest of the GB talent pool that no one has stepped up to challenge the domestic pre-eminence of an athlete now in his 35th year.

Chambers, the 2010 world indoor 60 metres champion, has been the top-ranked British 100m runner for four years and the only sprinter genuinely capable of challenging on the global stage. Last season no one in Britain got within a tenth of a second of him.

And yet, looked at another way, credit is also due to the remarkable longevity of an athlete who competes in a sport in which serious injury is always around the corner.

Asafa Powell, the former world 100 metres record holder and Chambers’s temporary training partner in Kingston for the past five weeks, on Monday offered an explanation for the Londoner’s staying power.

“Dwain works hard,” said Powell. “Dwain never gives up when we’re running. If you plan to take it easy, Dwain is always on the outside coming through, so he works very hard and I admire that about him.”

His observation was echoed by another training partner, Michael Frater, a member of Jamaica’s gold medal-winning 4 x 100m relay quartet at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, who said: “I used to think that most of the British sprinters weren’t hard workers, but Dwain is a true exception. Ever since he got here he has been working extremely hard.

“I think he has been overworking himself somewhat, but he realises how hard he has to work and I know in the end it will definitely pay off.”

Powell’s comments are especially significant given his previous stinging criticisms of British sprinters. Three years ago, on a visit to London for the Crystal Palace Grand Prix, he accused them of being “very lazy” and unwilling to train as hard as Jamaican athletes.

Whether or not that is fair, what cannot be denied is the failure of Britain’s best young sprinters to fulfil the potential they showed at junior level on the senior world stage. Harry Aikines-Aryeetey and Simeon Williamson have not run a personal best since 2008. Craig Pickering’s best dates back to 2007.

“I think we are in a difficult place in terms of sprinting,” admitted Jason Gardener, the former world indoor 60m champion and relay gold medallist in Athens in 2004. “We’ve not only failed to move on with the global scene but unfortunately our boys have gone backwards.”

It is too much to expect Chambers to arrest the decline single-handedly. Just to make the 100m final in London would be a huge achievement for an athlete of his advancing years.

But his presence in the relay team will certainly make a medal more feasible, not just because he is the fastest sprinter in Britain, but because he will bring experience and professionalism to the practice sessions.

Mike McFarlane, the coach who guided Chambers to world bronze in 1999 and fourth place at the Sydney Olympics before he made the fateful decision to move to the United States, said: “Dwain is totally professional in what he does. He has an ability to work really hard and he’s very robust, but one of his greatest assets is that mentally he’s tough.”